LORAN-C navigation apparatus

ABSTRACT

LORAN-C navigation equipment is disclosed wherein digital circuitry is used to automatically distinguish a master LORAN-C transmitting station from a secondary station. The equipment operator manually enters approximate time difference of signal arrival information for a particular secondary station into the equipment after consulting a LORAN-C chart. The operator then manually determines the exact time difference of arrival using thumbwheel switches and a LED lamp display. This procedure is repeated to determine exact time difference of arrival information for the master and each selected secondary station, and the information is plotted in a well-known manner on the LORAN-C chart to locate the position of the craft upon which the equipment is located. Manual acqisition of secondary stations simplifies the equipment and eliminates interference problems caused by skywaves and other transmissions. The set oscillator is easily and quickly calibrated by the operator who manually enters the LORAN-C chain group repetition interval information found on the LORAN-C chart on the thumbwheel switches of the receiver and then adjusts the oscillator for a match as indicated on the LED display.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to navigational equipment and more particularlyto hyperbolic navigational equipment utilizing the time difference inthe propagation of radio frequency pulses from synchronized groundtransmitting stations.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Throughout maritime history navigators have sought an accurate reliablemethod of determining their position on the surface of the earth andmany instruments such as the sextant were devised. During the secondworld war, a long range radio-navigation system, LORAN-A, was developedand was implemented under the auspices of the United States Coast Guardto fulfill wartime operational needs. At the end of the war there wereseventy LORAN-A transmitting stations in existence and all commercialships, having been equipped with LORAN-A receivers for wartime service,continued to use this navigational system. This navigational systemserved its purpose but shortcomings therein were overcome by a newnavigational system called LORAN-C.

Presently there are eight LORAN-C multi-station transmitting chains inoperation by 1980. This new navigational system will result in aneventual phase-out of the earlier LORAN-A navigational system.

LORAN-C is a pulsed low-frequency (100 kilohertz), hyperbolic radionavigation system. LORAN-C radio navigation systems employ three or moresynchronized ground stations that each transmit radio pulse chainshaving, at their respective start of transmissions, a fixed timerelation to each other. The first station to transmit is referred to asthe master station while the other stations are referred to as thesecondary stations. The pulse chains are radiated to receiving equipmentthat is generally located on aircraft or ships whose position is to beaccurately determined. The pulse chains transmitted by each of themaster and secondary stations is a series of pulses, each pulse havingan exact envelope shape, each pulse chain transmitted at a constantprecise repetition rate, and each pulse separated in time from asubsequent pulse by a precise fixed time interval. In addition, thesecondary station pulse chain transmissions are delayed a sufficientamount of time after the master station pulse train transmissions toassure that their time of arrival at receiving equipment anywhere withinthe operational area of the particular LORAN-C system will followreceipt of the pulse chain from the master station.

Since the series of pulses transmitted by the master and secondarystations is in the form of pulses of electromagnetic energy which arepropagated at a constant velocity, the difference in time of arrival ofpulses from a master and a secondary station represents the differencein the length of the transmission paths from these stations to theLORAN-C receiving equipment.

The focus of all points on a LORAN-C chart representing a constantdifference in distance from a master and a secondary station, andindicated by a fixed time difference of arrival of their 100 kilohertzcarrier pulse chains, describes a hyperbola. The LORAN-C navigationsystem makes it possible for a navigator to exploit this hyperbolicrelationship and precisely determine his position using a LORAN-C chart.By using a moderately low frequency such as 100 kilohertz, which ischaracterized by low attenuation, and by measuring the time differencebetween the reception of the signals from master and secondary stations,the modern-day LORAN-C system provides equipment position locationaccuracy within two hundred feet and with a repeatability of withinfifty feet.

The theory and operation of the LORAN-C radio navigation system isdescribed in greater detail in an article by W. P. Frantz, W. Dean, andR. L. Frank entitled "A Precision Multi-Purpose Radio NavigationSystem," 1957 I.R.E. Convention Record, Part 8, page 79. The theory andoperation of the LORAN-C radio navigation system is also described in apamphlet put out by the Department of Transportation, United StatesCoast Guard, Number CG-462, dated August, 1974 and entitled "LORAN-CUser Handbook".

The LORAN-C system of the type described in the aforementioned articleand pamphlet and employed at the present time, is a pulse type system,the energy of which is radiated by the master station and by eachsecondary station in the form of pulse trains which include a number ofprecisely shaped and timed bursts of radio frequency energy as priorlymentioned. All secondary stations each radiate pulse chains of eightdiscrete time-spaced pulses, and all master stations transmit the sameeight discrete time-spaced pulses but also transmit an identifying ninthpulse which is accurately spaced from the first eight pulses. Each pulseof the pulse chains transmitted by the master and secondary stations hasa 100 kilohertz carrier frequency, so that it may be distinguished fromthe much higher frequency carrier used in the predecessor LORAN-Asystem.

The discrete pulses radiated by each master and each secondary LORAN-Ctransmitter are characterized by an extremely precise spacing of 1,000microseconds between adjacent pulses. Any given point on the preciselyshaped envelope of each pulse is also separated by exactly 1,000microseconds from the corresponding point on the envelope of a precedingor subsequent pulse within the eight pulse chains pulses. To insure suchprecise time accuracy, each master and secondary station transmitter iscontrolled by a cesium frequency standard clock and the clocks of masterand secondary stations are synchronized with each other.

As mentioned previously, LORAN-C receiving equipment is utilized tomeasure the time difference of arrival of the series of pulses from amaster station and the series of pulses from a selected secondarystation, both stations being within a given LORAN-C chain. This timedifference of arrival measurement is utilized with special maps havingtime difference of arrival hyperbola information printed thereon. Thesemaps are standard LORAN-C hydrographic charts prepared by the UnitedStates Coast Guard and the hyperbola curves printed thereon for eachsecondary station are marked with time difference of arrivalinformation. Thus, the difference in time arrival between series ofpulses received from a master station and selected ones of theassociated secondary stations must be accurately measured to enable thenavigator to locate the hyperbola on the chart representing the timedifference measured. By using the time difference of arrival informationbetween a master station and two or more secondary stations, two or morecorresponding hyperbolae can be located on the chart and their commonpoint of intersection accurately identifies the position of the LORAN-Creceiver. It is clear that any inaccuracies in measuring time differenceof arrival of signals from master and secondary transmitting stationsresults in position determination errors.

There are other hyperbolic navigation systems in operation around theworld similar to LORAN-C, and with which my novel receiver can readilybe adapted to operate by one skilled in the art. There is a LORAN-Dsystem utilized by the military forces of the United States, as well asthe aforementioned LORAN-A system. Others are DECCA, DELRAC, OMEGA,CYTAC, GEE and the French radio WEB, all of which operate in variousportions of the radio frequency spectrum and provide varying degrees ofpositional accuracy.

LORAN-C receiving equipment presently in use is relatively large insize, heavy and requires relatively large amounts of power. In addition,present LORAN-C receivers are relatively expensive and, accordingly, arefound only on larger ships and aircraft. Due to the cost, size, weight,and power requirements of present LORAN-C receiving equipment, suchequipment is not in general use on small aircraft, fishing boats andpleasure boats. In addition, LORAN-C receiving equipment presently inuse requires anywhere from five to ten minutes to warm up and providetime difference measurement information. Further, present LORAN-Cequipment is rather complex, having many controls, and the operatorthereof usually must have some training in the use of the equipment.

Thus, there is a need in the art for a new LORAN-C receiver that issmall, light in weight, has few controls and is therefore easy tooperate by inexperienced people, requires a small amount of electricalpower, and is relatively low in cost. Such equipment would fill theneeds of those who do not now have LORAN-C receiving equipment.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The foregoing needs of the prior art are satisfied by my novel LORAN-Creceiver. I eliminate much of the complex and costly automaticacquisition and tracking circuitry in prior art LORAN-C navigationreceivers and provide a small, light weight, inexpensive receiver usingrelatively little electrical power.

My novel LORAN-C equipment has a receiving section that receives allsignals that appear within a small bandwidth centered upon the 100kilohertz operating frequency of the LORAN-C network. Digital registerand logic circuitry is then used to check the pulse train of allreceived signals to search for the unique nine pulse signal transmissionby a LORAN-C master station. Whatever pulse trains are received by thenavigation receiver are placed in the register and the presence of aproperly spaced master station ninth pulse is determined with the logiccircuitry. If the proper sequence of eight properly spaced pulsesfollowed by the spaced ninth pulse is not received, the receiverdisregards the pulse train. In this manner the applicant's navigationreceiver disregards all types of spurious signals and LORAN-C secondarystation signals which do not include the ninth pulse and responds onlyto a master station pulse train.

Upon receipt of a master station pulse train the remaining circuitry inthe applicant's navigation receiver is enabled. Rather than useautomatic circuitry to analyze and sort between received spurioussignals and a number of secondary station signals to search for aselected secondary station signal, the applicant utilizes five manuallyoperated thumbwheel switches coupled with digital comparator circuitsand a light emitting diode (LED) readout display to locate a desiredLORAN-C secondary station pulse train. The purpose of the thumbwheelswitches is to set a fairly narrow search window in time only withinwhich the desired secondary station pulses train transmission can besearched for. The initial time position of the search window is set bythe two higher order thumbwheel switches after the navigation receiveroperator consults a LORAN-C navigation chart for the area within whichthe receiver operator is navigating. Error in setting the first twothumbwheel switches upon consultation of the LORAN-C navigation chart isimprobable because the operator can generally guess his location withinone hundred miles. It will be noted upon consulting LORAN-C hydrographiccharts (see FIG. 4 for example) that the first two digits of timedifference measurements on the curves for a given secondary station isconstant over a wide area within which the receiver operator should knowhe is operating. These first two digits are those entered on the twohigher order switches.

The LED readout display associated with four lower thumbwheel switchesindicate to the operator if the selected secondary station pulse traintransmission is high, low, or centered within the search window selectedwith the two higher order switches. The four lower order thumbwheelswitches are then sequentially used to progressively narrow the searchwindow while keeping the fifth pulse of the pulse train transmissionfrom the selected secondary station centered in the successivelynarrowed search window. In this manner, the receiver operator quicklyand easily narrows the receiver search window until only the fifth pulseof the eight pulse train from the selected LORAN-C secondary station isreceived. After this procedure has been followed, the decimal numbers onthe six thumbwheel switches of my receiver directly give the timedifference of arrival between the fifth pulse of the master stationpulse train and the fifth pulse of the selected secondary station pulsetrain. The operator of the applicant's navigation receiver takes thissix digit number on the thumbwheel switches and locates thecorresponding hyperbola or line of position (LOP) on the LORAN-Cnavigation chart. It should be noted that the LORAN-C charts only havefive digit time difference on arrival numbers on the LOPs. Thiscorresponds to the five highest order digits on my thumbwheel switches.The sixth or lowest order digit on my thumbwheel switches is used tointerpolate between LOPs on the LORAN-C chart. In a well-known manner,the operator will determine a second and possibly even a third LOPutilizing the navigation receiver and the intersection of these LOPs onthe LORAN-C chart indicates the position of the receiver.

The above described operation realizes some of the advantages of mynovel LORAN-C receiver. By using the manually positioned and narrowedsearch window the receiver operator effectively filters out spurioussignal and undesired secondary station pulse train transmissions,without complex, costly, bulky and relatively high power conservingcircuitry.

In an alternative embodiment of my invention a commercially availableintegrated circuit microprocessor may be used to perform the finalsearch window narrowing after the first two digits are manually enteredinto the receiver to initially determine the search window for theselected secondary station. The techniques of programming such amicroprocessor to analyze the comparator outputs and generate signals toshift and narrow the search window are relatively simple and obvious toone skilled in the art.

The operator of my novel LORAN-C navigation receiver can quickly andeasily calibrate the receiver master osciallator, unlike prior artreceivers. To accomplish this, the operator consults the LORAN-Cnavigation chart for the area in which the receiver is located and takesthe group repetition interval (GRI) information for the LORAN-C chaincovering the area and enters this information into the navigationreceiver using the aforementioned thumbwheel switches. When the receiverinternal oscillator is properly set all lamps of the LED display arelit. When the navigation receiver oscillator is not accurately set, theLED display will so indicate by not having all LED lamps lit, and theoperator then operates a front panel calibration adjustment to quicklyset the frequency of the receiver master oscillator to the correctfrequency as indicated by all lamps of the LED display being lit.

The applicant's novel LORAN-C navigation receiver will be betterunderstood upon a review of the detailed description given hereinafterin conjunction with the drawing in which:

FIG. 1 is a general block diagram of the applicant's navigationreceiver;

FIG. 2 shows the shape of each pulse of the pulse trains transmitted byall LORAN-C master and secondary stations;

FIG. 3 is a graphical representation of the pulse trains transmitted bythe master and secondary stations within a LORAN-C chain;

FIG. 4 is a representation of a portion of a LORAN-C navigation chart;

FIG. 5A is a detailed block diagram or schematic of part of theapplicant's novel navigation receiver;

FIG. 5B is a detailed block diagram or schematic of part of theapplicant's novel navigation receiver;

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of the gain control circuit within theapplicant's navigation receiver;

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of the counter control circuit within theapplicant's navigation reciever;

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of the zero crossing detector, zerocrossing selector, and crossover comparator in the applicant'snavigation receiver;

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram diagram of an integrator used within theapplicant's navigation receiver; and

FIG. 10 shows the manner in which FIG. 5A and FIG. 5B should be arrangedwith respect to each other when reading the detailed description.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION

To understand the general or detailed operation of my novel LORAN-Creceiver, it is best to first understand the makeup of the signalstransmitted by LORAN-C stations and being received by my novel receiver.Representations of these signals are shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 which willnow be discussed.

All master and secondary stations transmit groups of pulses as brieflymentioned above, at a specified group repetition interval which isdefined as shown in FIG. 3. Each pulse has a 100Khz carrier and is of acarefully selected shape shown in FIG. 2. For each LORAN-C chain a grouprepetition interval (GRI) is selected of sufficient length so that itcontains time for transmission of the pulse chains from the masterstation and each associated secondary station, plus time between thetransmission of each pulse train from the master station so that signalsreceived from two or more stations within the chain will never overlapeach other when received anywhere in the LORAN-C chain coverage area.Each station transmits one pulse chain of eight or nine pulses per GRIas shown in FIG. 3. The master station pulse chain consists of eightpulses, each shaped like the pulse shown in FIG. 2, with each of theeight pulses spaced exactly 1,000 microseconds apart, and with a ninthpulse spaced exactly 2,000 microseconds after the eighth pulse. Thepulse chain for each of the secondary stations X, Y and Z contains eightpulses shaped as shown in FIG. 2, and each of the eight pulses is alsospaced exactly 1,000 microseconds apart. The pictorial representation ofthe pulses transmitted by the master station and the three secondarystations X, Y and Z associated therewith shown in FIG. 3 shows that thepulse trains never overlap each other and all are received within thegroup repetition interval. FIG. 3 also shown a representative timedifference of arrival of the pulse train from each of the secondarystations with respect to the master station. These time difference ofarrival figures are deisgnated Tx, Ty and Tz and are the timedifferences measured using my receiver.

It is to be recognized that the time difference of arrival betweenreception of the pulse train from the master station and the pulsetrains from each of the X, Y and Z secondary stations will varydepending upon the location of the LORAN-C receiving equipment with thecoverage area for a LORAN-C chain. In addition, the signal strength ofthe received signals from the master and secondary stations will alsovary depending upon the location of the receiving equipment, asrepresented by the different heights of the representative pulse linesshown in FIG. 3.

The delayed or spaced ninth pulse of each master station not onlyidentifies the pulse train as being from a master station, but the ninthpulse is also turned on and off by the Coast Guard in a "blink" code,well known in the art, to indicate particular faulty secondary stationsin a LORAN-C chain. These "blink" codes are published by the Coast Guardon the LORAN-C charts.

Each of the nine pulses from the master station and each of the eightpulses from each secondary station in a LORAN-C chain are also changedin phase to allegedly correct for skywave interference in a manner wellknown in the art. Skywaves are echoes of the transmitted pulses whichare reflected back to earth from the ionoshere. Such skywaves may arriveat the LORAN-C receiver anywhere between 35 microseconds to 1,000microseconds after the ground wave for the same pulse is received. Inthe 35 microsecond case, the skywave will overlap its own groundwavewhile in the 1,000 microsecond case the skywave will overlap thegroundwave of the succeeding pulse. In either case the received skywavesignal has distortion in the form of fading and pulse shape changes,both of which can cause positional errors. To prevent the long-delayskywaves from affecting time difference measurements, the phase of the100 Khz carrier is changed for each pulse of a pulse train in accordancewith a predetermined pattern. In these phase code patterns, which arepublished by the Coast Guard on the LORAN-C charts, the fifth pulsealways has a positive phase and is never changed. It is this fifth pulsewhich is searched for by my novel LORAN-C navigation receiver as Idisregard the phase changes and thus disregard the alleged skywaveproblems. In reality, very late skywaves (1,000 microseconds) causelittle or no problem so I disregard the phase code. In World War II whenthe LORAN-C systems were installed the carrier phase coding was used asa military security method, but after the war when the need for militarysecurity ceased, the phase coding was called a skywave unscrambling aid.In addition, my novel receiver does not post incoming signals by GroupRepetition Rate as is done in the prior art.

The exact pulse envelope shape of each of the pulses transmitted by allmaster and secondary stations is also very carefully selected to aid inmeasuring the exact time difference in arrival between a pulse trainfrom a master station and a pulse train from a secondary station as isknown to those skilled in the art. To make exact time differencemeasurement one method the prior art teaches is superpositions matchingpulse envelopes of pulses from a master station and a selected secondarystation. Another method is detection of a specific zero-crossing of the100 Khz carrier of the master and secondary station pulses.

Now that the reader has an understanding of the nature of the signalstransmitted by the LORAN-C master and secondary stations the reader canbetter understand the operation of my novel LORAN-C receiver which willnow be described.

In FIG. 1 is seen a general block diagram of my novel LORAN-C navigationequipment. Receiver 10 is of a conventional design of the type utilizedin all LORAN-C receivers and is tuned permanently to a center frequencyof 100 Khz, which is the operating frequency of LORAN-C transmittingstations. Receiver 10 functions with antenna 11 in a manner well knownin the art to receive these signals.

Demodulated pulses from receiver 10 are applied to a first input ofcomparator 28. In addition, the demodulated pulse is amplified anddelayed ten microseconds by delay circuit 29 and then applied to asecond input of comparator 28. This circuitry is adjusted so thatcomparator 28 provides an output signal starting at the point where thetwo waveform envelopes input thereto first cross each other which, dueto the adjustment, is immediately prior to the third zero crossing ofthe carrier frequency of each pulse received by receiver 10. FIG. 2shows this zero crossing and time difference measurements are made bymeasuring the time interval between the third zero crossing of the fifthpulse of the master station pulse train and the third zero crossing ofthe fifth pulse of the selected second station pulse train. There is anoutput from comparator 28 for each of the eight pulses transmitted bythe master and secondary stations and for the ninth pulse transmittedonly by the master station. The output from comparator 28 is applied toshift register 12 which is shifted in response to pulses from clock 16to store each pulse of the nine pulse train and eight pulse traintransmitted by the master and secondary stations respectively. Logic/5circuit 13 and logic/9 circuit 14 are connected to the stages (notshown) of shift register 12 to detect and respectively indicate when thefifth pulse of the eight pulse train transmitted by both master andsecondary stations is received, and when a properly spaced ninth pulseis received indicating that the received pulse train being input toshift register 12 is from a master station.

The outputs from logic/5 circuit 13 and logic/9 circuit 14 are input tocounter control 23 as shown. There is another input to counter control23 from counter/divider circuit 17 which is a conventional pulse countercircuit driven by clock circuit 16. There are also outputs fromcounter/divider 17 to comparators 18 and 20. The previously mentionedcircuits of my novel LORAN-C receiver cooperate to accurately measurethe time difference of arrival between the pulse train from a masterstation and the pulse train from a selected secondary station as is nowdescribed.

Clock 16 generates a 10 megahertz clock signal which is applied tocounter/divider 17 during the period that the LORAN-C receiver isenergized. Counter/divider 17, however, is only enabled to count atspecific times under control of counter control 23. More specifically,counter/divider 17 is normally disabled from counting and is onlyenabled to count by control circuit 23 upon logic/5 circuit 13indicating the receipt of the fifth pulse of a pulse train whether it befrom a master station or from a secondary station. If logic/9 circuit 14does not indicate the presence of the ninth pulse of a master stationwithin 5,000 microseconds after the counter enable signal from logic/5circuit 13 to counter control circuit 23, counter control circuit 23responds to the absence of the ninth pulse signal to thereafter disablecounter/divider circuit 12 from continuing counting and to reset thecounter stages to zero. In the event, however, that a signal is outputfrom logic/9 circuit 14 to control circuit 23 indicating the presence ofthe ninth pulse of a master station, counter control circuit 23 allowscounter/divider circuit 17 to continue counting until the pulse trainsignal from he selected secondary station should be received. Whencircuit 17 is thereby made to stop counting, the count therein indicatesthe time difference between receipt of the pulse trains from the masterstation and the selected secondary station.

During the time period that the stages of the counter/divider 17 arecounting the pulses from clock 16, the count in counter 17 is beingapplied via the leads to comparator 18 and comparator 20 and otherintermediate comparator circuits (not shown) but which are described inthe detailed description portion of this specification. The contents ofcounter/divider circuit 17 are input to the comparators includingcomparators 18 and 20 in binary coded decimal (BCD) form. Comparators 18and 20 are always comparing the count in counter/divider circuit 17 withthe output from digit switches 19 and 21, which indicates the settingsof these switches, and provides outputs when the outputs are numericallyequal.

Digit switches 19 and 21 and intermediate digit switches not shown aremanually operated thumbwheel switches having decimal numbers on theirface, and providing BCD coded outputs to comparators 18 and 20 andintermediate comparators (not shown) indicative of the decimal numberson the front of the thumbwheel switches. The operator of my novelLORAN-C receiver manually sets these switches as described hereinafter.Comparator circuits 18 and 20 compare the contents of counter/dividercircuit 17 and the settings of digit switches 19 and 21, and provide oneof three outputs which are stored in latch circuits, not shown in FIG.1, but shown in other figures and described in detail further in thisspecification, and which are part of comparators 18 and 20. The first ofthe three outputs from each of the comparators indicates if the digitswitch 19 and 21 settings are higher than the contents ofcounter/divider circuit 17 at the moment a comparison is made bycomparators 18 and 20. The second output from comparators 18 and 20indicates if the contents of counter/divider circuit 17 and digitswitches 19 and 21 are equal and, finally, the third output fromcomparators 18 and 21 indicates if the input thereto from digit switches19 and 21 is lower than the numerical input from counter/divider 17. InFIG. 1, the three latches associated with each of the comparators isrepresented by latch 22 which has outputs connected to the LED lamp HI-4and the LED lamp LO-4. When comparator 20 indicates that the setting ofdigit switch 21 is higher than the corresponding counter stage ofcounter/divider 17, it energizes the appropriate one of the threelatches in latch 22 which lights lamp HI-4. Upon comparator 20determining that the setting of digit switch 21 is equal to the count inthe corresponding stage of counter/divider 17, comparator 20 energizesthe second latch in latch 22 which lights both lamps HI-4 and LO-4.Finally, when comparator 20 determines that the setting of digit switch21 is lower than the count in the corresponding stages ofcounter/divider 17, comparator 20 energizes the third latch in latch 22which causes only lamp LO-4 to be lit. In this manner, the lighting ofthe lamps HI-4 and LO-4 indicate to the operator of my novel LORAN-Creceiver whether or not the setting of digital switch 21 is correct. Inthe event that either the HI-4 or the LO-4 lamps are individually lit,each respectively indicating that the digit switch 21 setting is high orlow, the operator of the receiver changes the setting of digit switch 21until both lamps HI-4 and LO-4 are concurrently lit indicating thecorrect of digit switch 21. More particularly, these lamps indicate ifthe signal from the selected secondary station is received in the middleof the manually selected time period.

The six comparator stages represented by comparators 18 and 20 in FIG. 1have one stage corresponding to each of the five decimal numbers whichare found on the lines of position (LOP) of LORAN-C hydrographic chartas represented in FIG. 4 and an extra stage for interpolating betweenthese LOPs. The operator of my novel LORAN-C receiver will manuallyenter the first two digits of a LOP number on the two higher order digitswitches after consulting a LORAN-C hydrographic chart. Chance of errorin selecting the first two numbers is small since the first two digitsof LOP numbers are constant over long distances as may be seen onLORAN-C charts. Thus, the receiver operator is essentially not reallyguessing as to the first two digits and there is no need for latches orlamps associated with these first two higher order stages to indicate ifthe numbers are high or low. The remaining four stages, including digitswitch 21 which is associated with the sixth or lowest order stage, havelatches and lamps associated therewith. The remaining three switches,latches and lamps are not in FIG. 1, but are shown and described indetail elsewhere in the drawing and specification.

The four lowest order digit switches, including digit switch 21, withtheir associated comparators, latches and lamps are designed to operatesequentially. That is, upon a correct setting of the two highest orderdigit switches, including digit switch 19, the lamps, not shown,associated with the third highest order state must both be lit by theircorresponding comparator, also not shown, before the comparator and lampassociated with the next lower order stage can be energized. Thisprocess continues as the receiver operator sequentially operates each ofthe four lowest order digit switches in decending order until all lampson the receiver are lit indicating that the reading on the thumbwheeldigit switches indicates a LOP upon which the receiver is located. Atthis time, the signals from the selected secondary station are receivedin the middle of a very short time period.

Gain control circuit 15 with its various inputs and outputs is used tocontrol the gain level of receiver 10 at a first level when a masterstation pulse train is being received and at a second level when asecondary station pulse train is being received. Gain control circuit 15is normally in its manual gain control mode, with the gain being set bythe operator using Master Gain Control variable resistor R1 on the frontpanel of the receiver. The output of receiver 10 is coupled into gaincontrol circuitry 15 wherein circuitry is included to determine if thegain for the master station is too high. When this condition occurs, thelast mentioned circuitry lights the lamp LEVEL HIGH and the operatorreduces the gain with resistor R1 until the lamp LEVEL HI isextinguished.

Briefly, circuit 15 switches gain control states as follows: Upon thepulse train received from a master station being stored in shiftregister 12, with the identifying ninth pulse being detected by logiccircuit 14, circuit 14 provides an output to gain control circuit 15which causes circuit 15 to switch to its automatic gain control mode forsecondary stations and manual gain control determined by variableresistor R1 is disabled. As the next signal to be processed by thereceiver will be from the selected secondary station, as determined bythe settling of the two highest order thumbwheel switches, the feedbackfrom receiver 10 to gain control circuit 15 provides automatic gaincontrol to receiver 10 for the selected secondary station in a mannerwell known in the art.

Each time gain control circuit 15 receives an indication from logic/9circuit 14 that the pulse train for the master station has beenreceived, circuit 15 applies a signal to energize lamp LOCK for apredetermined period of time less than the group repetition rate for theLORAN-C chain. Successive pulse chains received from the master stationcause gain control circuit 15 to cause successive energizing signals tobe applied to lamp LOCK and this lamp will appear to remain litindicating that the LORAN-C receiver has locked on to the masterstation.

As is well known in the art, when a secondary station of a LORAN-C chainis defective for some reason, the ninth pulse of the master stationpulse chain for the particular LORAN-C chain is periodically deleted ina predetermined "blink" code to indicate to the user of a LORAN-Creceiver which secondary station is defective. Blink information isfound on the LORAN-C hydrographic charts so the operator knows whichstation is defective. When the ninth pulse is blinked, gain controlcircuit 15 cannot energize lamp LOCK to keep the lamp in its illuminatedstate, but rather, the lamp is extinguished at the same "blink" coderate being transmitted by the master station.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In FIG. 2 is seen the shape or waveform of every pulse transmitted byboth master and secondary LORAN-C stations. The waveform of this pulseis very carefully chosen to aid in the detection of the third carriercycle zero crossing in a manner well known in the art. One method knownin the art is to take the first derivative of the curve represented bythe envelope of the pulse shown in FIG. 2, and this first derivativeclearly indicates a point at 25 microseconds from the beginning of thepulse. The next zero crossing following this indication is the desiredzero crossing of the third cycle of the carrier frequency. Similar tothe prior art method just described, my novel LORAN-C receiver detectsthe third zero crossing for each pulse of the master station and eachsecondary station. The precise time difference of arrival measurementsto be made utilizing a LORAN-C receiver are made by measuring from thethird cycle zero crossing of the fifth pulse of the master station pulsetrain and the third carrier cycle zero crossing of the fifth pulse ofthe manually selected secondary station.

In FIG. 3 is shown a representation of the nine pulse and eight pulsesignals transmitted by a master station and the secondary stations of aLORAN-C chain. The small vertical lines each represent a pulse waveformsuch as shown in FIG. 2. The height of the vertical lines represents therelative signal strength of the pulses as received at a LORAN-Creceiver. It can be seen that the signal strength of the pulses from themaster station and each of the secondary stations are not identical.Thus, there is a requirement in my LORAN-C receiver for differentreceiver gain levels for the master station and the selected secondarystation.

It can be seen in FIG. 3 that the group repetition interval (GRI) isdefined as the period between the first pulses of two consecutive masterstation pulse trains for a given LORAN-C chain. This information isfound on standard LORAN-C hydrographic charts and is used to calibratethe oscillator in my novel LORAN-C receiver as will be described ingreater detail further in this specification.

In a manner well known in the art, LORAN-C receiving equipment is usedto measure the time difference of arrival between the pulse train from amaster station pulse train and the pulse trains from two or moresecondary stations associated with the master station. This timedifference of arrival information is shown on FIG. 3 as T_(x), T_(y) andT_(z).

In FIG. 4 is shown a representative figure of LORAN-C hydrographicchart. On this chart are shown three sets of arcuate curves, each set ofcurves having a five digit number thereon and suffixed by one of theletters, x, y or z. The numbers directly correspond to the timedifference of arrival information T_(x), T_(y) and T_(z) shown in FIG. 3and measured by a LORAN-C receiver. In FIG. 3 the particular secondarystation with which a set of the arcuate curves is associated isindicated by the suffix x, y, or z after the numbers on the curves.

LORAN-C charts show land masses such as island 80 on FIG.4. For anexample, the operator of my LORAN-C receiver located on boat 81 nearisland 80 would measure the time difference of arrival informationbetween the master station and at least two of the three secondarystations in the LORAN-C chain. The operator, in making a measurementwith respect to the X secondary station would measure 379000 on thethumbwheel switches of my LORAN-C receiver. As can be seen in FIG. 4,the line of position (LOP) 379000 is shown passing through boat 81. In asimilar manner, the operator would measure the time difference arrivalinformation with respect to the Y secondary station and would come upwith the number 699800 on the thumbwheel switches of the receiver.Again, the LOP for this receiver reading passes through boat 81. If theoperator of the LORAN-C receiver measures the time difference of arrivalinformation with respect to the Z secondary station the thumbwheelreadings would show 493500 and the LOP for this reading also passesthrough boat 81. Thus, the operator can accurately fix the position ofboat 81 on the LORAN-C chart. From this position information on the mapof FIG. 4, boat 81 may, for example, be accurately navigated towardharbor 82 of island 80.

It will be noted that the sample LORAN-C chart shown in FIG. 4 has onlyfive digits on each LOP, but my LORAN-C receivers, has six digits. Thelowest order or sixth digit is used to interpolate between two LOPs onthe LORAN-C chart in a manner well known in the art. In the simpleexample given above, boat 81 is located exactly on three LOPs so nointerpolation need be done to locate a LOP between those shown on thechart of FIG. 4. Thus, it should be noted that the six digit numbersobtained utilizing my equipment each included an extra zero suffixed tothe end of the five digit LOP numbers shown on the LORAN-C chart. Asixth digit other than zero on the receiver would require interpolationbetween the LOP lines on the chart.

In FIGS. 5a and 5b is shown a detailed schematic of my novel LORAN-Creceiver, which I will now describe in detail. FIGS. 5a and 5b must bearranged as shown in FIG. 10 to show the interconnections between thecircuitry on FIGS. 5a and 5b.

LORAN-C signals are received by receiver/amplifier 10, which is of aconventional design, using antenna 11 in a manner well known in the art.Interference caused by miscellaneous ratio frequency signals and signalsfrom other navigational systems are essentially eliminated in thatreceiver 10 utilizes slot filters having a very narrow bandpass or slotand steep skirts to block most interference from my LORAN-C receiver.The received signals are coupled from receiver 10 to full wave detector27 which is an absolute value detector and includes a low-pass filter.Detector 27 provides a full wave video envelope output. Receiver 10,being of a conventional design utilized in many LORAN-C receivers, isnot disclosed in further detail herein. Similarly, full wave detector 27is well known in the art and made up of a commercially availableNational Semiconductor LM 713 integrated circuits and other discretecomponents and is not disclosed further herein.

The video envelope output from detector 27 is input to four othercircuits. It is applied to input Y of comparator 28, to ten microseconddelay circuit 29, to gain control circuit 15 at input SI, and to the Kinput of zero crossing detector 24. Comparator 28 is a standardlyavailable National Semiconductor LM 710 high gain voltage comparator,and is used in conjunction with zero crossing detector 24 and zerocrossing selector 25, as will be described further in thisspecification, to detect the third 100 Khz carrier cycle zero crossingpreviously described and shown in FIG. 2. To perform this functioncomparator 28 is used to provide an output at 25 microseconds plus orminus four microseconds from the beginning of each pulse such as shownin FIG. 1. The next zero crossing of the 100 Khz carrier is the desired30 microseconds point. As previously mentioned, time difference ofarrival measurements are made by measuring from the 30 microsecond zerocrossing point of the fifth pulse of the master station pulse train andthe 30 microsecond zero crossing point of the fifth pulse of theselected secondary station pulse train. To accomplish this, delaycircuit 29 delays the video envelope output from detector 27 by tenmicroseconds, which is one full cycle of the carrier, and the delayedsignal is then amplified by amplifier 30 before being applied to input Zof comparator 28 to be compared to the waveform input at the Y input.The delayed and amplified waveform applied to at input Z of comparator28 has a point on its envelope where its amplitude is equal to theamplitude of a point on the unamplified envelope applied to input Y atcomparator 28. This point occurs at the 25 microsecond plus or minus 4microsecond point mentioned previously. Delay circuit 29 and amplifier30 are factory adjusted and never need further adjustment in that delaycircuit 29 is a LC delay line the value of the components of which varyinsignificantly over the life of the LORAN-C receiver. Amplifier 30 is acommercially available high gain operational amplifier using highnegative feedback to reduce the overall gain to between 1 and 2. Withthis large amount of negative feedback the adjusted gain of amplifier 30also does not change appreciably over the life of the receiver.

The output from comparator 28 on lead G is a pulse which occurs at 25microseconds plus or minus 4 microseconds from the beginning of eachpulse of the pulse trains transmitted by the master and secondaryLORAN-C stations. These pulses output by comparator 28 onto lead G areapplied to (logic/5) AND gate 13, (logic/9) AND gate 14, zero crossingselector 25, and 1,000 microsecond shift register 35 in register 12.

It should be noted that the output from register 35 is applied to theinput of shift register 36, the output of register 36 is applied to theinput of shift register 37, and the output of register 37 is applied tothe input of shift register 38. This interconnection of shift registers35, 36, 37 and 38 comprises, in a manner well known in the art, a largershift register. In this embodiment of my invention shift registers 35,36, 37 and 38 are each 250 bit shift registers, so the four of them makeup a 1,000 bit shift register. Each of shift registers 35, 36, 37 and 38have a clocking input C which is derived from clock 16 and dividercircuit 45 in FIG. 5b. Clock 16 operates at 10 megahertz and appliesthis frequency signal to divider circuit 45 which divides by 40 andtherefore applies a 250 kilohertz signal to the clocking inputs C of theindividual shift registers 35, 36, 37 and 38 within shift register 12.Thus, a signal applied to the input of any one of shift registers 35,36, 37 and 38 will emerge from each of the individual shift registers1,000 microseconds later. It is to be noted that this rate of passage ofa pulse through each of the shift registers 35, 36, 37 and 38 is exactlyequal to the rate at which pulses are received in a pulse train from themaster or secondary LORAN-C stations.

More particularly, as each of the eight pulses, each spaced at 1,000microseconds intervals, of the pulse trains that are transmitted by allmaster and secondary stations is received by my novel LORAN-C receiver,the pulses are shifted through the individual stages of shift register12 and are tested by logic AND gate circuits 13 and 14 as now described.The first of the eight pulses output from comparator 28 on lead G isapplied to shift register 35 and is also applied to one of the multipleinput to AND gates 13 and 14. As the other inputs to gates 13 and 14 arenot high, there is no output from gates 13 and 14 at this time. 1,000microseconds later the second of the eight pulses received from a masteror secondary station causes a pulse output from comparator 28 on lead G.At this precise moment in time, the first received pulse, which has beenin the process of being shifted through shift register 35, appears atthe output of this register. Thus, the first pulse being output fromregister 35 is applied to a second input of gate 13 while the secondpulse, present on lead G, is supplied to the aforementioned first inputto gates 13 and 14. Again, all the inputs to either gate 13 or gate 14are not high at this time, and, accordingly, there is no output fromeither one of these gates. Upon the third LORAN-C pulse being receivedand being output as a pulse from comparator 28, the first received pulsehas now been shifted through shift register 36 and is present at itsoutput, while the second received pulse has been shifted through shiftregister 35 and is present at its output. Again, all the inputs to gates13 and 14 are not high and there is no output from these gates. As thefourth pulse is output from comparator 28 on lead G, the first, secondand third pulses have been shifted through shift registers 37, 36 and 35respectively and are present at their respective outputs at this time.Again, a combination of the input leads to gates 13 and 14 is high butall inputs are not high so there is no output from these gates. 1,000microseconds later the fifth pulse from a master or secondary stationpulse train is being output from comparator 28 on lead G. At thisprecise moment in time, due to the shifting action of the individualregisters within register 12, the first pulse is being output from shiftregister 38, the second pulse is being output from shift register 37,the third pulse is being output from shift register 36, and the fourthpulse is being output from shift register 35. It will be noted that atthis time all the inputs to AND gate 13 only are high and there is anoutput from gate 13 to one shot multivibrator 26. All but one of theinputs to AND gate 14 is high at this time due to the action of inverterstage 34 at the output of shift register 35. Accordingly, there is nooutput from AND gate 14 at this time. Due to the fact that interferenceand noise at the 100 Khz carrier frequency of the LORAN-C chain shouldnot occur as five pulses exactly spaced at 1,000 microsecond intervals,it is difficult for noise to enter my LORAN-C equipment and trigger anoutput from AND gate 13. Thus, only a valid pulse chain from a master orsecondary LORAN-C station will cause an output from gate 13 indicatinginitially that a pulse train is being received from either a master orsecondary station. As will soon be described, AND gate 14 is used todetermine if the pulse train being received and operating shift register12 is from a master station by looking for the characteristic spacedninth pulse in a master station pulse train.

As the sixth, seventh and eighth pulses from either a master orsecondary station are received, they are shifted into the individualshift registers stages of shift register 12. At the same time, thefirst, second and third pulses have been shifted out of the last shiftregister stage 38 and are lost as there are no further stages. Turningfor a moment to FIG. 3, we should again note that the ninth pulse of amaster station pulse train is spaced exactly 2,000 microseconds from theeighth pulse of the pulse train. Thus, upon the receipt of the ninthpulse and output thereof from comparator 28 on lead G, the sixth pulseis being output from shift register 38, while the seventh pulse is beingoutput from shift register 37 and the eighth pulse is being output fromshift register 36. Due to the absence of a pulse between the eighth andninth pulses, which are spaced 2,000 microseconds apart, there is nooutput from shift register 35 at this time. The lack of an output fromshift register 35 causes a low input to inverter stage 34 and therebycauses the output of inverter 34 to be high. It can be seen that at thistime, due to the action of inverter 34, all the inputs to AND gate 14are high and there is an output from this gate at this time. However,due to the lack of a pulse being output from shift register 35, oneinput to gate 13 is not high so there is no output from gate 13 at thistime. Thus, an output signal from gate 14 indicates that the pulse traindetected initially by gate 13 is from a master station rather than froma secondary station.

As the accuracy of my LORAN-C receiver depends upon accurately measuringthe time difference between the third zero crossing of the fifth pulseof the master station pulse chain and the third zero crossing of thefifth pulse of the pulse train from a selected secondary station, it isimperative that the third carrier cycle zero crossing be accuratelydetected for the fifth pulses from the master and secondary stations.This is accomplished in the following manner in my novel equipment. Theoutput from fullwave detector 27 is applied to the K input of zerocrossing detector 24 which detects each positive going zero crossing ofthe 100 Khz carrier cycle of each pulse in the pulse trains from themaster and secondary stations. Detector 24 applies a signal via lead Lto zero crossing selector 25 for each of these zero crossings.

Upon shift register 12 and AND gate 13 cooperating as previouslydescribed to provide an output indicating the fifth pulse in a pulsetrain from a master or a secondary station, there is an output from gate13 to energize one-shot multivibrator 26 which produces a timed outputpulse of 6,000 microseconds duration that is applied to input M of zerocrossing selector 25. Also as previously described, the output fromcomparator 28 on lead G to selector 25 occurs at 25 microseconds ± fourmicroseconds from the beginning of each detected pulse. Zero crossingselector 25 is jointly responsive to the signal input thereto directlyfrom comparator 28 and starting immediately prior to the desired thirdzero crossing of each pulse, and to the leading edge of the 6,000microsecond pulse generated by one-shot multivibrator 26 indicating thepresence of the fifth pulse, and to the indication from zero crossingdetector 24 of a positive going zero crossing, to generate a signal ofits output lead P starting at precisely the 30 microsecond third zerocrossing point which is shown in FIG. 2.

Summarizing, zero crossing selector 25 provides an output pulse on itslead P for the desired zero crossing of the third cycle of the carrierfrequency of the fifth pulse of a master or secondary LORAN-C station.This signal on lead P is input to counter control 23 and used to startcounter/divider 17 in FIG. 5b to accurately measure the time differenceof arrival between the third zero crossing of the fifth pulse of thepulse train from a master station and the third zero crossing of thefifth pulse of the pulse train from the selected secondary station.

Before continuing with a description of the operaton of counter control23, turn to counter/divider 17 shown in FIG. 5b. Counter/divider circuit17 can be seen to be made up of decade divider circuits 39, 40, 41, 42,43 and 44 which are individually known and cooperate in a manner wellknown in the art. Counter 17 is driven by 10 megahertz clock 16 whichinputs a 10 megahertz pulse train to counter 17 for the entire periodthat my novel LORAN-C receiver is energized. However, counter 17 is notenabled to count all the time as the reset input R of the individualdivider stages 39 through 44 are utilized to keep counter 17 disabledduring specific periods of time as is now described.

It can be seen that the reset inputs R of divider circuits 39 through 44are all connected to the R output of counter control 23 in FIG. 5a, andthe output of the 10,000 microsecond divider 39 is applied to input A ofcounter control 23. Other outputs from the individual divider stages 39through 44 are applied to corresponding comparators 18, 46, 47, 48, 49and 20 as shown. These outputs from the divider stages 39 through 44 tothe last mentioned comparators is in BCD Code format.

Returning now to the description of counter control 23. In response tothe leading edge of the signal on input P which indicates theappropriate third zero crossing of the fifth pulse of the pulse trainfrom either a master or secondary station, control 23 removes aninhibiting signal from its output R which allows decade dividers 39through 44 to start counting from a zero count state in response to the10 megahertz signal from clock 16, in a manner well known in the art. Ifthe pulse at input P to counter control 23 was due to a fifth pulse of asecondary station, rather than the fifth pulse from a master station,there will be no continual signal from gate 14 indicating the presenceof a master station ninth pulse, and 10,000 microseconds after the startof counting there will be an output from decade divider 39 to input A ofcounter control 23 causing counter control 23 to apply a signal tooutput lead R to inhibit all of decade dividers 39 through 44 fromcounting and to reset them to their zero state. This is done because itis not desired to make a time difference of arrival measurement startingwith receipt of a signal from a secondary station.

If, responsive to a master station pulse train, a start pulse from zerocrossing selector 25 is applied to input P of counter control 23, 5,000microseconds after the start of counting the master station ninth pulsewill cause a signal to be output from gate 14 to input CN which tellscounter control 23 to let counter/divider 17 continue counting. Asubsequent inhibit signal at input A of counter control 23 due to decadedivider 39 will then be ignored.

As previously described, counter/divider 17 in FIG. 5b is enabled tocommence counting upon detection of the third zero crossing of the fifthpulse of each master and secondary station pulse train. However, if thepulse train is not from a master station, counter/divider 17 is resetand all its individual stages 39 - 44 are reset to zero. Upon thedetermination that the enabling pulse is from a master station, countercontrol 23 allows counter 17 to continue counting.

As will now be described, detection of the appropriate zero crossing ofthe fifth pulse of the selected secondary station does not stopcounter/divider 17 from counting, but rather the contents ofcounter/divider 17 at that moment in time are compared with the settingsof the associated thumbwheel switches 19, 61 to 64 and 20 by comparators18, 20 and 46 - 49 and the comparison results are stored in latches aswill be described further in this specification.

As previously described, the operator of my novel LORAN-C receiver makesan intelligent guess as to the first two digits of the time differenceof arrival information after consulting a LORAN-C hydrographic chart forthe area within which the LORAN-C receiver is located. For example, theoperator would consult the LORAN-C chart shown in FIG. 4 and upon adetermination that he will measure the time difference of arrivelinformation between the master station and X the secondary station, theoperator knows that the first two digits of the time difference ofarrival information should be 37. The digit three is then entered ondecimal thumbwheel switch 19 in FIG. 5b, and the number seven is enteredonto the decimal thumbwheel switch 61. Upon decade divider 39 reachingthe count of three, comparator 18 detects the equality between the countthree being input from divider 39 and input from thumbwheel switch 19and provides a high output indicating same. The high output fromcomparator 18 enables comparator 46 to subsequently indicate theequality of the contents of divider stage 40 and thumbwheel switch 61within the immediately following 1,000 microseconds period.

The output of comparator stage 18 is also connected to leading edgedetector 51 and is connected via inverter 50 to trailing edge detector33 in FIG. 5a. As will be described in greater detail further in thespecification, leading edge detector is used to place latches 56, 59, 60and 22 in a reset state, thereby enabling these latches to thereafterstore the comparison decision output of a corresponding one ofcomparators 47, 48, 49 and 20. Trailing edge detector 33 detects whenthe output of comparator 18 goes low indicating that there is no longera match between the contents of decade divider 39 and thumbwheel switch19. In the particular example being described herein, the decimal threewas entered onto switch 19, so when decade divider 39 reaches the countof four the output of comparator 18 goes low. This occurs after the timedifference of arrival measurement has been made, so does not interferewith the operation of other circuitry in my receiver. More particularly,when the output of comparator 18 goes low this transition is detected bytrailing edge detector 33 which applies a signal to input PR of countercontrol 23 which responds thereto to energize output R stopping countingand resetting all the decade divier stages of counter/divider 17 tozero. This occurs prior to the receipt of the next pulse train from themaster station so it prepares counter/divider 17 for this event.

Comparators 18, 20 and 46 through 49 are commercially availableFairchild 924 5-bit comparators. These comparators have two sets ofbinary coded decimal (BCD) inputs as previously described and have threeoutputs. Only one of these three outputs can be energized at any singletime. The first output indicates if one of the two inputs is numericallyhigher than the other input, while the second input indicates if thesecond input is numerically lower than the second input, and the thirdoutput indicates if the two inputs are numerically equal. These threeoutputs are shown as the three leads from each of comparators 47, 48 49and 20 and going respectively to latch circuits 56, 59, 60 and 22. Theselast named latch circuits are used to store one of the three comparatoroutputs at the moment in time that the third zero crossing of the fifthpulse from the selected secondary LORAN-C station is received.

As latches 56, 59, 60 and 22 are all identical, only the details oflatch 56 are shown in detail in FIG. 5b. Latch 56 includes flip-flops53, 54 and 55, OR gates 57 and 58, and LED lamps HI-1 and LO-1 which areon the front panel of my LORAN-C receiver and used to indicate to theoperator of the receiver when the manual settings of switches 62, 63, 64and 21 indicate the correct time difference of arrival information.Flip-flop 53 is used to store the indication from comparator 47 that asetting of switch 62 is too high, while flip-flop 54 is used to storethe output from comparator 47 that the setting of switch 62 is correct,and flip-flop 55 is used to store the output from comparator 47indicating that the setting of switch 62 is too low. That is, theinformation stored on flip-flop 53 is the output from comparator 47 thatindicates that the decimal number keyed up on switch 62 is numericallyhigher than the number in decade divider stage 41. Flip-flop 54 is usedto store the information from comparator 47 that the number setting ofswitch 62 is numerically equal to the number in decade divider 41, andflip-flop 45 is used to store the output information from comparator 47that the number setting of switch 62 is lower than the number appearingin decade divider 41.

While three outputs have been described from comparators 47, 48, 49 and20 to the associated latches 56, 59, 60 and 22, a fourth output is shownin FIG. 5b from one comparator stage to the next comparator stage. Thisfourth output is not really such, but is shown in this way for ease ofrepresenting the invention. This output coupling the various comparatorsstages is actually one of the three outputs previously described and, inparticular, is the output which indicates that the numerical setting ofthe decade of the associated decade divider equals the numerical settingof the associated switch.

Turning now to describe how the circuitry of latch 56 functions. Asmentioned briefly heretofore, the output of comparator 47 at the momentin time that the third zero crossing of the fifth pulse of the selectedsecondary station is detected is stored on one of the three flip-flops53, 54 or 55. This information is stored on one of these threeflip-flops until within 1,000 microseconds of the time that a subsequentfifth pulse of the selected secondary station is received. In thismanner information is stored on flip-flops 53 to 55 most of the time andis cleared only briefly for updated storage. This is done because theoutputs of flip-flop 53 to 55 and gates 57 and 58 provide the signalswhich are used to light LED lamps HI-1 and LO-1 and by this mode ofoperation these lamps will not flicker. The brief 1,000 microsecond orless period that flip-flop 53 to 55 are cleared is insufficient forlamps HI-1 and LO-1 to extinguish before being re-energized by theflip-flops.

In the event that flip-flop 53 is placed in its one state to store thesignal from comparator 47 indicating that the decimal number manuallyplaced on switch 62 is numerically higher than the number in decadedivider 41, the one output of flip-flop 53 is high. The high output fromflip-flop 53 is passed through OR gate 57, which also serves as adriver, to energize lamp HI-1. Lamp HI-1 alone being lit indicates thatthe number setting of thumbwheel switch 62 is too high, and the LORAN-Creceiver operator must manually reset switch 62 to a lower number.Similarly, when flip-flop 55 is placed in its one state indicating thatthe numerical setting of switch 62 is lower than the numerical contentsof decade divider 41, the output of flip-flop 55 is high and is appliedvia OR gate 58 to ligh only lamp LO-1. Lamp LO-1 alone being litindicates to the operator that the numerical setting of switch 62 is toolow and the switch must be manually changed by the operator to a highernumber. Finally, when comparator 47 indicates that the numerical valuesof the setting of switch 62 and the contents of divider 41 are equal,flip-flop 54 is placed in its one state and its output is applied viaboth OR gate 57 and 58 to concurrently light lamps HI-1 and LO-1. Theconcurrent lighting of lamps HI-1 and LO-1 tells the operator that thesetting of switch 62 is correct.

As mentioned briefly heretofore, the fourth output from each of thecomparators 18 and 46 - 49 to the next subsequent comparator stage isused to enable the next subsequent stage to perform its comparisonfunction. In this manner, the lamps associated with latches 56, 59, 60and 22 will not be lit until the settings of the thumbwheel switches 19and 61 are correct. Similarly, both lamps HI-1 and LO-1 of latch 56 willboth have to be lit indicating an equality comparison by comparator 47,before comparator 47 enables comparator 48 to function and one, theother or both of lamps HI-2 and LO-2 can be lit. In this manner, theoperator of the receiver does not see the LED lamps associated withlatches 59, 60 and 22 turning on and off while he is operating switch 62to light both lamps HI-1 and LO-1 of latch 56.

In summary, the operator, after consulting a LORAN-C chart, enters thetwo highest order time difference of arrival digits onto thumbwheelswitches 19 and 61. If the digits entered onto switches 19 and 61 arecorrect, one, the other or both of lamps HI-1 and LO-1 of latch 56 willbe lit and the operator will manually operate switch 62 until both ofthese lamps are lit. Next, one the other or both of lamps HI-2 and LO-2will be lit and the operator will manually operate switch 64 until bothof these lamps are lit. Thereafter, one, the other or both lamps HI-3and LO-3 will be lit and the operator will manually operate switch 64until both of these lamps are lit. Finally, comparator 20 will beenabled and one, the other or both of lamps HI-4 and LO-4 will be litand the operator will operate switch 21 until both of these lamps arelit. With all eight lamps being lit, the operator knows that the exacttime difference measurement has been made and takes the six digitdecimal number of thumbwheel switches 19, 61 to 64 and 21 and finds orinterpolates to the appropriate line of position (LOP) on the LORAN-Cchart. For example, with reference to FIG. 4, if the operator was makingthe measurement with respect to the X secondary station, the reading onswitches 19, 61 to 64 and 21 would be 379000. It will be noted in FIG. 4that this line of position goes through boat 81. As previouslydescribed, the last or sixth digit is used to interpolate between LOPsshown on a LORAN-C chart.

Thereafter, the operator will utilize the LORAN-C receiver to find theLOPs for one, the other or both the Y and Z secondary stations. Withrespect to the Y secondary station the reading on switches 19, 61 to 64and 21 will be 699800, and with respect to the Z secondary station thereading on these same switches will be 493500. It can be seen that allthese lines of position intersect at boat 81 in FIG. 4.

As mentioned previously, latches 56, 59, 60 and 22 are cleared outwithin 1,000 microseconds before receipt of the fifth pulse of the pulsetrain from the selected secondary station and new comparison informationis stored in these latches by the associated comparators. To performthis function the two time difference of arrival digits placed onswitches 19 and 61 will result in a comparison equality output fromcomparator 18 and thereafter comparator 46 as previously described. Uponthe output of comparator 18 going high this transisition is detected byleading edge detector 51 which provides an output through OR gate 52which is applied to the reset input of latches 56, 59, 60 and 22. Asshown in representative latch 56, this reset input is applied to thereset inputs of flip-flops 53, 54 and 55 to clear these flip-flops.Similarly, flip-flops (not shown) in latches 59, 60 and 22 are reset.Within the following 1,000 microsecond period, which is a time periodequal to the duration of a single pulse, the third zero crossing of thefifth pulse of the selected secondary station will be detected and willresult in an output from zero crossing selector 25 on lead P. It shouldbe noted that one branch of the output on lead P goes to the lower righthand corner of FIG. 5a and then is input to the set inputs of latches56, 59, 60 and 22 in FIG. 5b. It can be seen in latch 56 that this setinput goes to the set inputs S of flip-flops 53 to 55. Upon a signalappearing on the set inputs S of latches 56, 59, 60 and 22, whatever oneof the three inputs is energized from the associated comparators andapplied to the enable input E of flip-flops 53 to 55 will be stored inthe corresponding one of the three flip-flops upon the appearance of theset signal. Thereafter, flip-flops 53 to 55 will not respond to any ofthe signals output from comparator 47 and applied to the E inputs.Similarly, the flip-flops (not shown) within latches 59, 60 and 22 areplaced in their set states at the same time. Shortly after the timewithin which the fifth pulse of the selected secondary station will bereceived, the count in divider 39 will be incremented by one and will atthat time be numerically larger than the digit placed on thumbwheelswitch 19. The output of comparator 18 to comparator 46 will go low andwill be passed via inverter 50 to trailing edge detector 33 in FIG. 5a.When the output of comparator 18 goes low, inverter 50 causes the inputto trailing edge detector 33 to go high which is detected by detector33. In response thereto, detector 33 applies a signal to the PR input ofcounter control 23 which responds to energizing its output lead R toreset the various stages of counter/divider 17 as previously described.In this manner counter/divider 17 is cleared to zero and is prepared tobe triggered by the next received pulse train.

Returning now to FIG. 5a to describe the operation and function of gaincontrol circuit 15. As pointed out with reference to FIG. 3, signalsbeing received from master stations and each of the secondary stationswill be received at different signal strengths or amplitudes. Thus, forexample, master station pulse trains may be received at very high levelswhile the pulse train from a selected secondary station may be receivedat very low levels. Gain control circuit 15 is utilized to switch thegain of 100 Khz receiver amplifier 10 between two levels to provide forthe proper reception of the signals from this master station andsecondary station. More particularly, gain control circuit 15 is placedin an automatic gain control mode for secondary station signals and isplaced in a manual gain control mode for master station signals. For theautomatic gain control mode, the output of fullwave detector 27 isconnected to the SI input of gain control 15 which samples and storesthe feedback signal at input SI and automatically provides a gaincontrol signal to receiver/amplifier in a well known manner.

As previously described, the fifth pulse of both master and secondarystations causes an output from AND gate 13 in FIG. 5a. One output ofthis gate is applied to input 5 of gain control circuit 15. Anotherinput C of gain control circuit 15 comes from the output of the secondstage comparator 46 in FIG. 5b and this output of comparator 46 onlygoes high immediately prior to receipt of the fifth pulse of theselected secondary station. With inputs C and 5 to gain control circuit15 being high, gain control circuit 15 is switched to its automatic gaincontrol mode where it samples the output of fullwave detector 27, storesthe sample, and automatically provides a gain control signal to 100 Khzreceiver/amplifier 10. Upon the termination of the output fromcomparator 28 on lead G, the output of AND gate 13 goes low causing the5 input of gain control circuit 15 to go low. Gain control circuit 15therefore becomes nonresponsive to the signal appearing at input SI.Control circuit 15 continues to provide automatic gain control toreceiver/amplifier 10 until the output of comparator 46 on FIG. 5b goeslow thereby causing input C to control circuit 15 to go low.

Gain control circuit 15 provides a different gain control signal toreceiver/amplifier 10 when a master station signal is being received.Control circuit 15 goes into this master station gain control mode whenits inputs 9 and D are high. As previously described, the output of ANDgate 14 is high upon the detection of the ninth pulse of a masterstation pulse train, and the D input goes high under control of countercontrol 23 which makes its D output go high immediately upon theindication at its input P of the third carrier cycle zero crossing ofthe fifth pulse of the master station. During this period that gaincontrol 15 is in its master station gain control mode, variablepotentiometer R1 is connected to receiver/amplifier 10 to set the gainlevel thereof. Potentiometer R1 is located on the front panel of myLORAN-C receiver and is entitled Master Gain Control. In the event thatthe gain signal applied to receiver/amplifier 10 in response to themanual setting of potentiometer R1 is too high, other circuitry withingain control circuit 15 causes lamp LEVEL HI to be lit. The operatorthen turns potentiometer R1 until lamp LEVEL HI is extinguished.

When input C of gain control circuit 15 is sequentially and consistentlyenergized in response to the receipt of every fifth pulse of theperiodic pulse train generated by the selected secondary station, gaincontrol circuit 15 generates periodic signals that cause lamp LOCK to beremain lit. Lamp LOCK indicates to the operator of the LORAN-C receiverthat the circuitry is working properly and is properly measuring thetime difference of arrival information between the master station and aselected secondary station.

As is well known in the art the Coast Guard selectively blocks thetransmission of or "blinks" the ninth pulse of the master station in apredetermined code pattern to indicate which secondary stations in theLORAN-C chain are defective and should not be utilized by operators ofLORAN-C equipment to make measurements. When the ninth pulse is notgenerated, counter 17 in FIG. 5b is not allowed to function to the pointwhere comparator 46 can cause input C of gain control circuit 15 to gohigh. Thus, gain control circuit 15 blinks the LOCK lamp in directcorrespondence with the master station blinking the ninth pulse. In thismanner the operator of my LORAN-C receiver also knows which secondarystations are defective upon viewing the blink code and consulting theLORAN-C chart upon which the designations of the blink codes are listed.

FIG. 6 shows a detailed schematic of the gain control network 15 whichis only shown in block diagram form in FIG. 5a. The input and outputlead designations of gain control network 15 shown in FIG. 6 are thesame as those shown in FIG. 5a and just described. As describedpreviously, the pulse waveform signal output from fullwave detector 27is applied to input SI of gain control network 15. It can be seen thatthe signal at input SI is either connected via the contact of relay L1to circuitry including transistor T1 or is connected via the contact ofrelay L2 to circuitry including transistor T2. Relays L1 as well asrelay L3 are operated only in the secondary station automatic gaincontrol mode, whereas relay L2 as well as relay L4 are operated only inthe master station manual gain control mode. By the action of AND gate75 it can be seen that relay L1 is operated upon inputs 5 and Cconcurrently being high, whereas relay L3 is operated only upon input Cis high. As previously described input 5 is high upon the detection ofthe fifth pulse of the master station and secondary stations pulsetrains, but input C is high only for the selected secondary station. Asinput C is high in the order of 100 microseconds prior to the detectionof the third zero crossing of the fifth pulse of the selected secondarystation, relay L1 can only be operated by the action of logic gate 75 atthe same time that input C goes high. The C input only remains high fora few hundred microseconds and during this period the signal output ofdetector 27 is applied to the base terminal of transistor T1 which, inconjunction with capacitor C3, stores the waveform sample applied to thebase terminal T1 during the short period that relay L1 is operated.Capacitor C3 holds its waveform sample because transistor T1 is thenturned off and amplifier 82 has a high input impedance. The signalsample stored on capacitor C3 is amplified and passed through lowpassfilter 77, the contact of relay L3 and lead AGC to receiver/amplifier 10to adjust the gain level of receiver/amplifier 10 during the period thatthe secondary signals are being received as previously described.

Due to the action of inverting amplifier 81 one of relays L3 or L4 isoperated at all times. Thus, when the C input of gain control network 15is high relay L3 is operated and relay L4 is unoperated. Followingreceipt of the signals from the selected secondary station and thedesired time difference of arrival measurement being made, input C goeslow causing relay L3 to return to its unoperated state and causing relayL4 to operate. The contact of relay L4 causes potentiometer R1 to beconnected to AGC lead to receiver/amplifier 10. The manual setting ofpotentiometer R1 causes a potential dependent upon its setting to becoupled via lead AGC to receiver/ amplifier 10 to set the gain thereof.

As previously described, input D of gain control network 15 goes highimmediately upon the detection of the third cycle zero crossing of thefifth pulse of the master and secondary station pulse trains. When inputD is high in response to the fifth pulse of a master station pulsetrain, input 9 will also be high as previously described. This causesthe output of AND gate 76 to go high and operate relay L2. The contactof relay L2 causes the master station fifth pulse signal present atinput SI of network 15 to be coupled to the base terminal of transistorT2. Transistors T2 and T3 along with their associated components storethe master station fifth pulse sample on capacitor C2 and determine ifthe gain of receiver/amplifier 10 is too high. In the event that themaster station level is too high, the signal sample stored on capacitorC2 causes transistor T3 to conduct more and the potential acrosscollector resistor R6 is then sufficient to cause amplifier 80 to lightlamp LEVEL HI. The operator would then use potentiometer R1 (MASTER GAINCONTROL) on the front panel of my LORAN-C receiver to reduce the gainlevel and extenguish LED lamp LEVEL HI.

Although, in the detailed description of gain control network 15immediately herein above, I described relays L1, L2, L3 and L4 withassociated contacts, they are not electromechanical relays but weremerely described in this manner for easy understanding of the functionof gain control network 15. In reality a commercially availableFairchild CD 4066 integrated circuit switch was used. This integratedcircuit contains four single-throw electronic switches which provide thefunction described.

Counter control 23 is shown in detailed schematic form in FIG. 7 andoperates as follows. Initially, flip-flop 66 is in its zero state andflip-flop 67, which is a Texas Instruments 7474 flip-flop, has it Qoutput high. The zero output of flip-flop 66 and the Q output offlip-flop 67 are applied to the inverted inputs of OR gate 68, so theoutput of this gate is low. Due to the operation of inverter 69,however, the signal on output lead R is high. As previously described,the signal on lead R is applied to the reset inputs of the variousstages of counter/divider 17 as shown in FIG. 5b and a high signal onlead R keeps counter/divider 17 from counting. Also as previouslydescribed, there is a pulse on input lead P of counter control 23 forthe third cycle zero crossing of the fifth pulse of all master ofsecondary station pulse trains. As can be seen, one of the two inputs ofAND gate 65 is connected to the Q output of flip-flop 67 which isinitially in its high state. With a signal present on input lead P, bothinputs to AND gate 65 are high and the output thereof goes high causingflip-flop 66 to be placed in its set state. In this set state the oneoutput of flip-flop 66 goes high while the zero output of flip-flop 66goes low. The high signal present at the 1 output of flip-flop 66 isapplied to lead D to be input to gain control circuit 15. The signal onlead D, in conjunction with an output signal from AND gate 14 detectingthe master station ninth pulse, places gain control circuit 15 in itsmaster gain control mode.

With the zero output of flip-flop 66 now being low, the D input offlip-flop 67 is also low and this causes the Q output of flip-flop to below. At this time, both inputs of OR gate 68 are low and due to theaction of the inverted input the output of OR gate 68 is high. Due tothe action of inverter 69 the signal on lead R goes low allowingcounter/divider 17 in FIG. B to count as previously described.

Two events can happen at this time; counter control 23 can receive acontinue signal on lead CN which allows counter/divider 17 to continuecounting and make a time difference measurement between the signals froma master station and a selected secondary station, or an abort signal isreceived on input lead A to counter control 23 which causescounter/divider 17 to be reset to zero. This latter operation occurswhen the start signal on input lead P is due to the fifth pulse from asecondary station rather than a master station as previously described.

In the event that the fifth pulse start signal present on input lead Pis from a master station, there will be an output signal from AND gate14, which detects the presence of a master station ninth pulse, and thissignal is the continue signal which is applied to input lead CN. Thesignal on lead CN is applied to clocking input CL of flip-flop 67 incounter control 23 and causes flip-flop 67 to remain in its presentstate which, at this point in time, is with its Q output low. Thus,counter/divider 17 in FIG. 5b is allowed to continue counting as alreadydescribed. Thereafter, after the time difference measurement has beenmade in my LORAN-C receiver, there is a signal present on lead PR, aspreviously described, that indicates that the measurement has beencompleted. This completion signal present on lead PR is applied topreset input P on flip-flop 67 and causes this flip-flop to return toits initial state with its Q output high. This causes counter/divider 17to stop counting and to have its various stages reset to zero as alreadydescribed.

If, prior to a continue count signal being received on lead CN, an abortsignal is received on input lead A of counter control 23, indicatingthat a master station ninth pulse has not been received, this abortsignal being applied to the reset input R of flip-flop 66 causes thisflip-flop to change to its zero state and its zero output is therebycaused to go high as previously described. As a final consequencycounter/divider 17 is reset to zero as previously described.

In FIG. 8 are shown detailed schematics of comparator 28, zero crossingdetector 24, and zero crossing selector 25, the operation of all ofwhich were generally described heretofore. The components of comparator28 cooperate in a well known manner in response to the signal at inputY, and to the delayed and amplified version of the same signal appliedto input Z, to apply an output signal on lead G of a duration ofapproximately fifty microseconds at a point in time 25 microseconds,plus or minus four microseconds after the beginning of each and everypulse (FIG. 2) from all master and secondary stations. As previouslydescribed, the desired third zero crossing of the carrier of the pulsesoccurs immediately after the beginning of the pulse on output lead G sothe signal output on lead G is used to locate the third zero crossing asis described in detail hereinafter.

Zero crossing detector 24 has an input K upon which the pulse signalsare received from detector 27. Components making up detector 24cooperate in a manner well known to provide an output signal on lead Lfor every positive going zero crossing of each cycle of each pulsetransmitted by the master and secondary stations. As is recognized, onlythe third positive going zero crossing must be detected and thisaccomplished by zero crossing selector 25 as will not be described.

Zero crossing selector 25 has an input to flip-flop 73 from zerocrossing detector 24 as shown. A second input to selector 25 is fromcomparator 28 as shown, and finally the third input to selector 25 isthe 6,000 microsecond pulse on lead M starting with the third zerocrossing of the fifth pulse of each master and secondary station pulsetrain. Upon the concurrence of the 6,000 microsecond pulse from one-shotmultivibrator 26 starting at 25 microseconds plus or minus 4microseconds from the beginning of the fifth pulse of the pulse trainsfrom the master and secondary stations, and the signal from comparator28, there will be a signal on output Q of flip-flop 72 to the D input offlip-flop 73. A signal on input D of flip-flop 73 along with the signalapplied to the clocking input thereof from zero crossing detector 24indicating every positive going zero crossing of each pulse, there willbe an output from flip-flop 73 at its Q output. This output is appliedto a differentiator made up of resistors R9 and R10, diode D3, capacitorC4 and amplifier 71 to provide a very short pulse on output lead P fromzero crossing selector 25 starting at the third positive going zerocrossing of each fifth pulse of the pulse trains transmitted by themaster and secondary stations. This is used to drive counter control 23as described elsewhere in this specification.

While that which has been described hereinabove is at present consideredto be the preferred embodiment of the invention, it is illustrativeonly, and the rapid changes in technology will soon make various changesand modifications obvious to those skilled in the art without departingfrom the scope of the invention as claimed below.

For example, it would be obvious to modify the gain control circuitry inan obvious manner to make the master and secondary stations gain controlboth automatic or both manual. In addition, it would be obvious to usean integrated circuit microprocessor to automatically accomplish thetime difference measurement of the four lower order thumbwheel switchesdisclosed herein after the two higher order digits are manually entered.Further, there are several alternate ways known in the art to detect thethird zero crossing of the received pulses of which only one isdisclosed briefly in the specification.

It would also be obvious to store the output of the counter and switchcomparators on the flip-flops of the latches, rather than clearing themonce per group repetition interval to account for the receiver losinglock. The comparison information obtained when the receiver was in lockwould be left in the latch flip-flops indefinitely or for apredetermined period when the receiver is out of lock and would only beupdated when the receiver reestablishes its lock state. In this mannerthe HI- and LO- LED lamps display will not flicker when the receiverloses lock.

It would also be obvious to duplicate the counter/divider, comparator,thumbwheel switch, latch, LED lamp display and other circuitry so thattwo secondary stations may concurrently be selected and measurementsmade, rather than the simpler sequential operation detailed herein.

What I claim is:
 1. Navigation receiver-indicator providing navigationinformation by receiving and measuring differences in the time ofarrival of signals transmitted by a plurality of pairs of transmittersand the difference measurements are plotted on a navigation chart todetermine position, comprisingmeans for determining the signaltransmission from the first station to transmit of one of said pairs oftransmitters and generating a first signal in response thereto, firstmeans manually operable to indicate the approximate time period betweenthe arrival of signals from said first station and the arrival ofsignals from the second station to transmit of said one of said pairs oftransmitters, and first means operable in response to said first signaland to said approximate time period indicated by said first indicatingmeans to measure the difference in time of arrival at saidreceiver-indicator between signals received from said first station andsignals received from said second station within a first time periodstarting at the end of said approximate time period and to provide anoutput indicating said difference in time of arrival measurement.
 2. Theinvention of claim 1 further comprising second difference in time ofarrival measuring means operable subsequent to the initial receipt ofsaid second station signals within said first time period tosubsequently make said time difference of arrival measurements within asecond time period shorter than said first time period such that saidsecond station signal pulses are received in the middle of saidshortened time period, and to provide an output more accuratelyindicating the difference in time of arrival between the signalsreceived from said first and said second stations.
 3. The invention ofclaim 2 wherein said second time measureing means comprises meansresponsive to said first signal for checking if said second signal isreceived in the middle of said shortened time periods and providing anindication of where said second signals appear within said shortenedtime periods, said shortened time periods being time shifted in responseto said indication to assure that said first signal is received in themiddle of said last mentioned time period.
 4. The invention of claim 2further comprising second manually operable means for selecting periodsof time and wherein said second time measuring means is responsive tothe settings of said last mentioned selecting means to successivelyshorten said period of time and to time shift each said successivelyshortened period so that said second station signals are received in themiddle of said shortened periods, said second selecting means moreaccurately indicating the time difference of arrival between the signalsfrom said first and said second stations.
 5. The invention of claim 4wherein said first and said second time measuring means jointly comprisea counter having a plurality of counting stages with said countercommencing counting responsive to said first signal, and wherein saidfirst and said second manually operable selecting means jointlycomprises a plurality of switches each providing a coded output countsignal indicating the setting of the switch and one of said switches isassociated with each of said counting stages, and a plurality ofcomparators each comparing the count contents of one of said countingstages applied via a first input and the coded output from theassociated one of said switches applied via a second input and providingan indication of which of the count signals applied to said first andsaid second inputs is numerically greater or if they are equal, and thetime difference of arrival between the signals from said first and saidsecond stations is equal to the numerical value of the setting of saidswitches when said comparators all provide a numerically equalindication when said second station signals are received.
 6. Theinvention of claim 5 wherein said first and said second time measuringmeans jointly comprise a plurality of latches one of which is associatedwith each of said comparators and stores the indication from itsassociated comparator upon receipt of said second station signal.
 7. Theinvention of claim 6 further comprising a plurality of visual indicatormeans each of which is associated with one of said latches to visuallydisplay the comparison indications stored in said latches, said switchesbeing operated until all said visual indicator means indicate that allof said comparators provide a numerically equally indication.
 8. A LORANnavigation receiver-indicator for receiving repetitive pulse trainsignals from a master and a plurality of secondary LORAN transmittingstations and measuring the time between the arrival of the signalsreceived from the master station and the signals received from at leasttwo secondary stations to determine the position of thereceiver-indicator comprisingfirst logic circuitry for determining thatthe received pulse train signals are from a master or a secondarystation and generating a first signal in response thereto, second logiccircuitry for determining that the received pulse train signals are fromsaid master station and generating a second signal in response thereto,a clock generating a pulse train, a counter driven by said clock, havinga plurality of counter stages, and counter normally being disabled fromcounting but being enabled to count responsive to said first signal,said counter being disabled from counting and being reset to zero uponcounting to a first count without said second signal being generated,and counter being enabled to continue counting responsive to said secondsignal being generated prior to said counter counting to said firstcount, said counter being disabled from counting and being reset to zeroafter having been enabled to continue counting upon a manuallydetermined second count being in said counter, a plurality of manuallyoperable multi-position switches each providing a numerical outputsignal indicating the setting of the switch, one of said switches beingassociated with each of said plurality of counter stages, a firstplurality of two input comparators each comparing the contents of higherorder ones of said pluraity of counter stages applied to a first inputwith the numerical output signal of the associated one of said switchesapplied to a second input and providing a third signal output only uponthe signals at the two inputs being numerically equal, a secondplurality of two input comparators each comparing the contents of lowerorder ones of said plurality of counter stages applied to a first inputwith the numerical output signal of the associated one of said switchesbeing applied to a second input count and providing fourth outputsignals indicating which of the two input count signals is numericallygreater or they are equal, said second plurality of comparators beingenabled only in response to said third signal from said first pluralityof comparators, said fourth output signals providing an indication ofchanges to be made in the settings of said switches associated with saidsecond plurality of comparators so that said fourth output signalsindicate that the inputs to said second plurality of comparators areequal, and the settings of said switches indicate the time periodbetween the arrival of the pulse trains from said master station and aselected secondary station.
 9. The invention in claim 8 furthercomprising a shift register for temporarily storing the pulse trainsignals received from each of said master and said secondary stations,said first and said second logic circuits checking the contents of saidshift register.
 10. The invention in claim 9 further comprising countercontrol means responsive only to said first signal to enable saidcounter to count, being responsive to said first count in said counterto disable set counter and reset it to zero count, being responsive tosaid second signal to enable said counter to continue counting althoughthereafter counting to said first count, and being responsive to amanually selected second count in said counter occuring after saidcounter has been enabled to continue counting to disable said counterand reset it to zero count.
 11. The invention in claim 10 furthercomprising storage means for storing said fourth signals upon said firstsignal occuring during the time period that said third signal is outputfrom said first plurality of comparators.
 12. The invention in claim 11wherein said storage means comprises a plurality of latch means each ofwhich is associated with one of said second plurality of comparators,said latch means being enabled by said counter control to store saidfourth signals output from said second plurality of comparators uponsaid first signal occuring during the time period that said third signalis output from said first plurality of comparators.
 13. The invention inclaim 12 further comprising a plurality of lamp means being associatedwith said second plurality of comparator means and being responsive tosaid fourth signals stored in said latch means associated with each ofsaid second plurality of comparator means to provide a visual indicationof whether the signals applied to said two inputs of said secondplurality of comparators are equal or unequal.
 14. The invention inclaim 13 wherein said plurality of lamps means comprises a first and asecond lamp being associated with each of said latch means with saidfirst lamp being lit when the signal at the first of said two inputs ofsaid associated one of said second plurality of comparators isnumerically greater than the signal at said second input, said secondlamp being lit when the signal at said second input is numericallygreater than the signal at said first input, and both said first andsaid second lamps being lit upon the signals at said first and saidsecond inputs being numerically equal.
 15. The invention in claim 11further comprising indicator means responsive to said fourth signalsstored in said storage means to provide an indication of whether thesignals applied to said two inputs of said second plurality ofcomparator means are numerically unequal or are equal, and upon therebeing an unequal indication the operator of said receiver-indicatoroperates said plurality of switches until there is an equal indication,the numerical setting of said plurality of switches indicating the timedifference in arrival between said signal pulse trains from said masterstation and said one of said secondary stations when said indicatormeans provides said equal indication.
 16. The invention in claim 15further comprising a gain control circuit causing a receiver portion ofsaid receiver-indicator to operate at a first gain level when said pulsetrain signals are being received from said master station, and tooperate at a second gain level when said pulse train signals are beingreceived from said secondary stations.
 17. The invention in claim 16wherein said gain control circuit comprises a first sample circuit onlybeing enabled to sample and store a portion of said secondary stationpulse train signal being received and cause said receiver to operate atsecond gain level.
 18. The invention in claim 17 wherein said gaincontrol circuit further comprises a manual gain control enabled to causesaid receiver to operate at said first gain level only when said masterstation pulse train signal is being received, and a second samplecircuit only being enabled to sample and store a portion of said masterstation pulse train signal and provide an indication upon the gain levelof said master station exceeding a predetermined level.
 19. Theinvention in claim 18 further comprising a first detector responsive tothe removal of said third signal output from said first plurality ofcomparators resulting from said second count in said counter to causesaid counter control means to disable said counter and reset it to zerocount.
 20. The invention in claim 19 further comprising a seconddetector that is immediately responsive to said third signal beingoutput from said first plurality of comparators to clear said latchmeans to remove said fourth signals stored therein for subsequentstorage of updated fourth signals.
 21. The invention in claim 20 furtherincluding apparatus for detecting a specific point on the envelope ofeach pulse of said master station and said secondary station pulsetrains, comprising a delay circuit, an amplifier, and a comparatorcircuit having two inputs to which signals are applied to be comparedand an output signal is generated when the amplitudes of signals appliedto said two inputs are equal, where each pulse received by said receiverfrom said master and said secondary stations is applied to a first ofsaid two inputs to said comparator, and each of said last mentionedpulses are also applied to said delay circuit and to said amplifier tocreate an amplified and delayed version of said signal that is appliedto said first input, said amplifier and said delay circuit beingadjusted so that said comparator comparing each of said pulses appliedto said first input and the amplified and delayed version of said lastmentioned pulses applied to said second inputs and providing said outputsignal.
 22. A method of deriving position information for navigationpurposes by making measurements of the time period between receipt ofsignals from a first or master transmitting station and selected ones ofa plurality of secondary transmitting stations in a navigation systemcomprising steps of,checking signals received from said master and saidsecondary stations to determine which of the received signals is fromsaid master station and which of the received signals is from one ofsaid secondary stations, manually selecting a first time period only inwhich the received signals from a selected one of said plurality ofsecondary stations will be recognized after consulting a navigationchart having time period information thereon for the approximategeographical location of equipment performing this method, and measuringthe time period between receipt of the signals from said master stationand the signals from said selected one of said secondary stationsreceived in said manually selected first time period to derive saidnavigation position information.
 23. The method for deriving navigationposition information in accordance with claim 22 further comprising thesteps ofproviding an indication of when the signals from said selectedone of said secondary stations are received within said manuallyselected first time period, responsive to completion of said time periodmeasurement, and shifting and narrowing said first time period to ashorter second time period responsive to said indication so that thesignals from said selected one of said secondary stations are receivedin the middle of said second time period, said indication at the timesaid selected secondary station signals are received in the middle ofsaid second time period indicating the desired navigation positioninformation for said selected secondary station.
 24. The method forderiving navigation position information in accordance with claim 23wherein all said signals are comprised of pulse trains and furthercomprising the step of storing the pulse train signals received from allsaid master and said secondary stations in order that all said signalsmay be checked to determine whether they are received from a master or asecondary station.
 25. The method for deriving navigation positioninformation in accordance with claim 22 wherein the step of time periodmeasurement comprises the steps of,starting a timing sequence upon adetermination that one of said received signals is from said masterstation, and stopping said timing sequence upon receipt of the signalfrom said selected one of said secondary stations within said manuallyselected first time period.
 26. The method for deriving navigationposition information in accordance with claim 25 wherein the step oftime period measurement further comprises the steps ofcomparing the timeperiod measured within said timing sequence with the numerical valueindicated by settings of switches used to manually select said firsttime period to determine if said selected secondary station signal isreceived in the middle of said first time period, providing an outputsignal indicating if the signal from said selected secondary station isreceived in the middle of said first time period, and shifting andnarrowing said first time period to a shorter second time periodresponsive to said output signal so that said selected secondary stationsignals are received in the middle of said second time period, thesettings of said switches and said output signal at the time saidselected secondary station signals are received in the middle of saidsecond time period jointly providing the desired navigation positioninformation for said selected secondary station.